Lon-b IP address changes (deadline 9th September 2016)

Background

We know that there have been a number of issues with reliability at our London Maidenhead (lon-b) location over the last few years, many due to the C4L network. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

We also have good news: we plan to migrate lon-b into our own Slough data centre and network. The planned date is the end of August, and we will also upgrade to new and faster hardware, including SSD-only storage, in the process.

Are your servers ready to move to Slough?

Please check your server's IP addresses. You can see them on the control panel:

Also check what IPs have been assigned as 'Primary' and 'Secondary' connections at the bottom of the control panel.

Do any of your server's static IP addresses ('Primary' and 'Secondary') start with?

109.104.101.

84.45.109.

84.45.121.

84.45.72.

84.45.8.

Yes

We can't migrate all of your IP addresses to Slough. Please follow the below guide to change them.

No

All your IP addresses will be migrated to Slough without a problem.

Guide Overview:

We have already given you an extra Duplicate IPs for Reconfiguration billing plan, with free capacity to add the same number of extra IPs into your account. You need to take the following steps to prepare for the migration:

Type netsh interface ip show config >> Network-details.txt & notepad Network-details.txt and press Enter. This will save the current network settings to a file called Network-details.txt and open it in Notepad:

Within the Network-details.txt file check if DHCP is enabled for the Local Area Network. If yes, we will now convert this IP into a static value so we can assign multiple static addresses.

Convert to static IP

Keeping the notepad file open for reference, launch the Network and Sharing Center by running the following command from the Administrator DOS prompt:

%SystemRoot%\system32\control.exe ncpa.cpl

Open the context menu (right-click) for the network interface (Local Area Connection) and choose Properties.

Choose Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), then click on Properties. In the dialog box, choose Use the following IP address, enter the following values (from Network-details.txt):

IP Address

Subnet

DNS servers

When you're done, click OK.

To add additional DNS servers, use the Advanced button, choose the DNS tab and click on Add. Your server retains the same IP address information as before, but now this information is static and not managed by DHCP.

Configure a Secondary Public IP Address for Your Windows VM

Within the Network and Sharing Center open the context menu (right-click) for the network interface (Local Area Connection) and choose Properties.
Choose Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), Properties, then Advanced and click on Add.

In the TCP/IP Address dialog box, enter the new IP/s from the ElasticHosts control panel. Use 255.255.255.0 as the Subnet mask, and then choose Add. On the same page, add a Gateway for the new public IP address, it will be the same as the IP, except the last digit will be .1.

Verify the IP address settings; if everything is okay, click OK twice, and then Close.

To confirm the above changes, at the command prompt, run the command: netsh interface ip show config >> Network-details2.txt & notepad Network-details2.txt

Within the Network-details2.txt file, we should now see the new configuration.

Sometimes you might need to right click and Disable/Enable the Local Area Connection to refresh the network settings. Test if you can ping your existing and new IP/s from your workstation.

Linux Servers

Gain access to your server using SSH. The username might be toor and the password might be visible on the server:

Save the current network settings to a file called Network-details.txt via the below command:

/sbin/ifconfig -a >> Network-details.txt

Output the routing, to the same file, via the below command:

route -n >> Network-details.txt

Check you don't already have an IP on eth0:1 by running the below command:

/sbin/ifconfig -a | grep 'eth0:1'

This should return nothing. If it does, keep grepping with eth0:2, eth0:3, etc. until you find a free interface. Please use this value instead of eth0:1 in the below commands.

We'll now temporarily add new IP/s and route/s to the server via the below commands, replace 5.152.176.71 with the IP you added earlier:

ip addr add 5.152.176.71/24 dev eth0 label eth0:1

route add -net 5.152.176.0/24 gw 5.152.176.1

In the above example commands, the new IP is 5.152.176.71 and the gateway is the same as the IP, except it always ends with .1. Test you can ping your existing and new IPs from your local workstation.

Confirm the above addition via the below command:

/sbin/ifconfig -a

4. Check your applications on both the old and new IP addresses

Check your application, for example web server, to see if it responds on the new and old IP address. Your application settings might need altering to communicate on the new IP.

5. Update your domains' DNS records

Update your domains' DNS records, using the new IP, and wait until they have propagated globally. Note, complete DNS resolution may take up to 48 hours. Use an online DNS propagation checker to monitor the progress. Search for 'check dns propagation'.

6. Swap completely onto the new IP(s)

Windows servers

If your server was previously using DHCP, visible in the Network-details.txt file as DHCP enabled: Yes. Follow the below steps:

Open the context menu (right-click) for the network interface (Local Area Connection), and choose Properties. Select TCP/IPv4 and then Properties, set Obtain an IP address automatically followed by OK and Close.

If you previously had a number of static IP addresses set, visible in the Network-details.txt file.
Set the server's new primary and secondary IP/s using the methods already covered, remember to remove the 109.104.101.x , 84.45.109.x , 84.45.121.x , 84.45.72.x , 84.45.8.x addresses.

Now, shut down your server.

Linux servers

Check if you had any IP information hard-coded in your configuration files with the below commands: